Author: Heidi Tiedemann Darroch
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“Let Me Entertain You”: Mystery Novels About Acting
Starting with Sondheim, this morning. Others may wake, stretch, and repeat soothing words of affirmation. I wake, shake off the frissons of anxiety about workplace dreams (only recently) and then decide on a Sondheim lyric to get me through the day. I’ve been steeped in Stephen Sondheim’s work since I was about 12 and found…
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On Learning Greek: From Classical Mysteries to Alice Munro’s “Silence”
This will be my fourth and, for now, final foray into the academic mystery novel, and here I will be considering Donna Tartt’s unexpected blockbuster The Secret History; an odd curiosity found in a second-hand book store, Carol Clemeau’s The Ariadne Clue; the recent fiction of Alex Michaelides, including The Maidens; and to end on…
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Ann Cleeves: An Appreciation
I’m interrupting my set of four posts on academic mysteries to reflect on how brilliant Ann Cleeves’s Vera novels are, in particular. No shade to her other series, which are engaging and innovative as well. This past fall I was due to go to Knowlton, Quebec to see Louise Penny interview Cleeves, at a public…
